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Christmas is a good time to think about online consumer trust. Comscore predicts online retail will top $100 billion in 2006. That’s good news, to be sure. But while the horses are at full gallop, it makes sense to look out ahead for obstacles or other things that might trip us up.

A few months back I speculated about the enlarging role of trust in electronic commerce. As an SEO dabbler, I had taken note of Google Trustrank, which accords trust using the deceptively simple formula: “Whomever is trusted by the trusted shall be trusted.” This fundamentally democratic approach to deciding which web pages to display in search results inspired me to think about other applications of trust-based schemes that might help stem online consumer fraud and other persistent consumer detractors. (more…)

Google Inc. on Monday agreed to pay News Corp. $900 million over three years to provide search and distribute advertising on the popular social network MySpace.com and the rest of the media company’s Fox online network.

Under the agreement, Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., would be the exclusive provider of text-based advertising and keyword-targeted ads on the Fox Interactive Media network. It would also have the right of first refusal on display advertising sold through third parties.

In return, Google would make guaranteed minimum revenue share payments to News Corp. of $900 million… more

It’s a bold, aggressive move from Google, and the significance of this deal goes beyond the mere capture of market share. I see 2 of Google’s most important strategic directives at work in the Myspace deal.

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For his performance in Network (1976), Peter Finch became the first Actor in a Leading Role to ever receive his Oscar posthumously. It is indescribably ironic that Finch played Howard Beale, an imminently hasbeen news anchorman, who decides to commit suicide on the air… for the ratings.

At the peak of drama, Beale seizes the microphone and delivers the following (now-famous) speech: